2020-03-20 - spike - Trapped again Part nine

Author: spike
Title: Trapped again. Part nine.
Date: 20 March 2020

Eric smirked at the other blacks as he sat.

“What was that all about?” Asked Col.

“What? Oh, the teacher? I turned up late, thanks to Mr Punctuality in the gym.”

“How much did you miss?”

“Thankfully, seems the last time I did anything musical, back in school, some of it stuck. I was already ahead of everyone else in there. I have a sneaky suspicion I might like this.”

“And if you don’t?”

“Tough. No way out. Not now, not even after the course completes. I’m stuck with it until I’m good enough to play in an orchestra.”

They collapsed into laughter. “Shit! Really?”

Eric nodded with a grin. “I like him though. He even came up with a crackin’ idea. In fact… I’ll see you lot in the gym, I’m going back to my cell. I’ve got some reading to do.”

Wall’s face twisted in disgust. “Reading?”

Eric rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me none of you has ever read a book?”

“What’s the bloody point when you can watch it on telop?”

“Just… try reading something. Fiction, any genre you prefer, doesn’t matter. This…” he tapped his forehead. “has better pictures than a bloody telop. Use your imagination. Books aren’t something to avoid. He put me onto something I’d never considered… Woodwind. Musical instruments. That’s what I’ll be reading up on.”

“How to play them? I thought that was the whole point of the course.”

“No, how to make them.” Eric stood. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

Back at his cell, he touched the door. “Open.”

“This cell is locked.”

“Oh. Oh right. He looked around and spotted a guard on the opposite walkway. “Sir. Sorry to bother you, but could you unlock my cell, sir.”

The guard nodded and marched around to him. “Why did you lock it?”

“You know how precarious our lives are, sir. The gym instructor suggested it. A little extra protection. You know we can’t take anything in there. Just makes sure no-one else can either, sir.”

He nodded. “You’re still new, aren’t you?”

“Still my firstish day, sir. Imagine once the next gym session’s done, I’ll be at the same point in the day when I moved into my cell, or near enough.”

“But you don’t seem the least bit miserable!”

Eric shrugged. “No point in self-pity, sir. I’m here, so I might as well get the most out of it. Keep things interesting and there’s nothing to be miserable about, sir.”

“But you’re a lifer! You’ll never see the outside of this place again!”

“All the more reason, sir. Like it or hate it. Why put myself through unneeded anguish? I am here and I do like a lot of it. This is my life now, sir.”

The guard’s eyes widened. “You’re not even deluding yourself either. Not even forcing it. I can tell! Bloody shit you’re a quick one to adjust! Let’s see how you feel about it in ten years time.”

Eric chuckled. “I imagine by then, I’ll be a member of the prison orchestra, sir, if the flute teacher has anything to do with it. I’m going to be fine, sir. Well, I will be as long as nothing gets me sent to you know where.”

He nodded and placed his hand on the door. “Unlock and open.”

The moment the cell was active, he sat at the desk and grinned. “Cell, can you inform me if or when a certain cell becomes occupied so I can call them?”

“Affirmative.”

“Do so, for level one, cell forty-seven and level five cell thirty-one.”

“Cell five dash thirty-one is currently occupied.”

“It is? Oh god, this is going to be good.” He paused, grinned even wider and removed his tunic, tossing it into the laundry. “Call that cell.”

Just as before, the cell appeared to be empty.

He almost sang it. “Oh, Medeliiiiine.”

Again, the figure sat bolt upright. She wore a charcoal grey tunic. It had to be the darkest grey by the looks of it. The only darker shade he’d seen was his own.

“What the shit!”

“You-hool… Over here, you great moron.”

“You!”

Eric nodded with a grin. “Me. Thought I’d let you know, we made our way home. I’ve been back and forth to this world a few times since then… Now, I get to torment you for a while.”

“What the bloody shit are you doing here?! What did you do to me?”

“If you’d been reasonable, you might’ve learned something. You see, I knew a hell of a lot more than you did. You might be able to boast technical superiority but that’s no substitute for experience. As for what I did to you… You had a gun. I had a gun. Mine, however, was non-lethal. Just a similar displacement wave to the one that ended with us face down in a bloody swamp surrounded by dinosaurs before we met you. Much, much smaller, obviously. Only capable of firing someone about a day’s drift away rather than the millions of years we were.”

She leapt out of the bed and crashed onto the chair, staring at him. “How did you find me?”

“We have our ways. When I found where you were, I couldn’t resist contacting you. I can answer any question you were too pigheaded to ask when you pulled the gun on me, now.” He smiled sweetly. “Not like you’ll be able to use that information. I would like to thank you for the manipulators, though. They’ve been incredibly useful over the past few years. I hope I can persuade Tyrell to let me keep them.”

Her eyes widened. “But you were a primitive! You didn’t even… You… You still believed in the bloody the creation myth! Those things should’ve been well beyond you!”

Eric rolled his eyes. “A computer combined with a scanner told me how to operate them. It’s not that complicated y’know. When I first ran into you, I thought you were one of us. It was only when I watched you drift away and then drift back that I knew something was off and as I’ve known other people who could travel like you, but without technological aids, I put on the thicky act because most fall into the universe is a playground trap. Only out for themselves. Sod the consequences in worlds not their own.”

“Without… That’s impossible.”

Eric sighed. “The number of times I’ve heard that in the past five years, and that was from the person who taught me! Of course it’s possible. What makes you think humanity’s endeavours are superior to billions of years of evolution? In any world with any sense, they try to mimic nature, not work from nothing.”

She folded her arms and glared at him. “Prove it.”

“Nothing up my sleeves…” Eric grinned. “Oops. No sleeves.” And with that, he gave her a little wave and made his hand vanish. “Oops, no hand! And before you claim manipulator use, you saw both my hands were empty.”

Her eyes widened. She shook her head. “You have to… You can’t possibly do something like that without a manipulator!”

“Tyrell has those now. His property after all. They’re only useful to me if I want to take someone with me. I came alone.”

“Get me out of here!”

Eric grinned and held up his tunic. “Not a fuckin’ chance. I don’t like having guns pointed at me.”

“How the hell do you do it then? Without”

Eric held up his hand. “Fairly simple really. I alter my perception. I put aside my depth perception and replace it with a perception of time. See it, and I can move through it as easily as you can walk to the pub. Oh, wait… You can’t walk to the pub. You’ll likely never see another one again, judging by your shade. I am curious though… What were your intentions regarding the diamonds.”

“You expect me to tell you that?”

“You’re here. You’ll not be free in decades, if ever, so why not? Oh, and I know the penalty for you causing trouble… One shade darker and you’re never getting out.”

“Shit on you.”

“OK, here’s my guess. Scam the criminal underworld out of millions, re-selling the same diamonds over and over and over again. They collect, the diamonds vanish, you retrieve them and rinse and repeat.”

Her eyes widened. She shook her head. “But… But you’re nothing! Nothing but an uneducated cretin!”

Eric rolled his eyes again. “You’re not very creative, are you. You seem incapable of adjusting your world view when new information presents itself. No wonder you’re a retro.” He leaned in. “I’m going to do something to aid your cause that doesn’t require bombings, doesn’t require murder and theft. You people really deserve the term fuckin’ retro.”

“Why? What do you intend?”

“Education. Simple as that. This world's lost a hell of a lot due to the technology being taken for granted. Even opening a bloody door’s alien to you people. I’m going to teach an ancient lost craft I happen to be a master at. Woodwork. When the people realise they don’t need computers to do everything, that they can gain a great sense of satisfaction from producing something with their own hands without the aid of one, they may finally start altering the balance a little. Tech isn’t evil, no matter what you say. It can just be overused or misused and here, it is.”

“And when you’ve taught a few… Then what?”

Eric shrugged. “I’ll keep on teaching until they’re good enough to start teaching themselves. Might be here years. Doesn’t bother me. I can get a lot of satisfaction from what I plan on doing.”

“But you can…” she whistled and waved her hand.

Eric chuckled. “You think I can just go home? I’m in prison. There is no way to leave here. It may shock you to know this, but as time passes, so the distances between worlds increases. This prison has been here for well over fifty years. Even I can’t walk a few million miles without sleep.”

“I knew you were stupid! You could get me out of here! We could even team up! We could make this world pay for what”

“You never change, do you? How can I escape? This should be fun.”

It was her turn to roll her eyes. “You use the place I bloody well found, you… you moron!”

“Right, walking a few million miles is beyond me and now you expect me to walk a few billion. Really sensible.”

“It takes ten minutes to get there!”

“It took ten minutes to get there four years ago! I told you it was an anomaly. I saved your life when I displaced you. I warned you it was slowly vanishing and all you had in reply was the gun. Well, guess what. It vanished three years ago and if you’d been there when it did, you would’ve never got away. No humanity for billions of miles in any direction and no power to recharge the manipulators. Eventually, even your clothing would’ve drifted leaving you naked there.”

“Impossible!”

“Very possible.”

“But I would’ve drifted the moment the power failed.”

Eric shook his head. “I know anomalies better than most. I also know how drift works. You yourself said drifting for too long’s bad… You’ve got no idea how bad. The speed of drift, the pull on you by your place of origin… It weakens over distance. Somewhere this far from home, for me, means I don’t need to worry about drift. A glass of water and a few breaths of air’s enough to tip the scales, grounding me here. You wouldn’t drift because you’re taking on matter from the world you’re in constantly. Your clothing however...”

“Oh, what do you know!?”

”I’ve witnessed it twice from within anomalies. First time, it was unintentional but I managed to get away in time, second time, it was the world I made my home so I wasn’t worried about never seeing my old one again. I won’t say trust me, but there is no escape. Every alarm in the prison’ll go off if I move my other hand even an inch away. I’m chipped too, y’know.”

“But why didn’t you go back there when I told the manipulators you were holding to!?”

“All those marbles do is temporarily change your homeworld. I choose if or when I drift. The only time it isn’t a choice is when I’m asleep or unconscious.”

“So you’ll be setting off alarms every night?”

“No. I told you, food, drink, air… They all tip the scales. I was grounded here before the police even arrested me, because I knew I would be arrested. I’ve got a mission to complete.”

Her eyes widened. She shook her head. “You can’t be! No!”

Eric chuckled. “Nope.”

“What?”

“I said no. You will not find out what my mission is… I may complete it in a day, a week, even a year, and you’ll never know. You’ll never know how, or when.”

She sagged into the chair.

“Aren’t you going to thank me for saving you?”

Her gaze snapped forward again.

Eric shrugged. “Didn’t think so. Cell, end communication. Bring up the public domain archive and create two more folders, one, music theory dash flute and one wooden instrument manufacture.”

Medeline vanished from the screen and the cell reported “Done.”

“She actually thinks I’ve come for her… Might make it even more fun.” Eric giggled. “Cell, two new search categories, but keep them separate. With the emphasis on no automation, find books on the manufacture of musical instruments with wood as the primary construction material and music theory with the emphasis on flute and notation. Got a lot of reading to do.”

“Done.”
* * *
“Closing and saving all files.” The screen blanked. “Prisoner 50095223, Gym.”

“Yes, sir!” After the last time, he actually said it with genuine enthusiasm as well.

He locked the cell on his exit again and made his way to the lift, down, to the corridor and into the gym.

A swipe of the hand, the door slid open, he entered and this time, only three of them were there.

“So, who wants to try beating me first?”

Wall stepped forward. “I’ll start. Race?”

“First time, free rein for me. Come on then.”

“What does free rein mean?”

Eric chuckled. “When you’re on a horse, it means you let it decide on how fast it goes. The reins are used to guide it, control it. When you’re on foot, you decide how fast you go. I was under the orders of him,” Eric nodded at the instructor, “last time.”

“Horse? How can you… You’ve actually ridden a horse?”

“No, but my dad had. What he described, amazing experience.”

The moment Eric stepped onto the section of floor that doubled as a treadmill, a screen popped up. “Preset distance. Five kilometres, distance covered, time and all the usual physical stats.” he glanced at his opponent. “Want to make it interesting?”

“Interesting how?”

“There’s more to fitness than speed. There’s also endurance. We could either race each other for fastest time over five or… Can you set it for endurance? See how far you can run?”

“Time this time… Talk to the instructor afterwards. He has to approve any deviations from the standard set. Only time we’re free to choose is when we’re here voluntarily.”

“Right then… I’ll say three two one go. We both start running on the go. If you have someone to race against, you might actually beat your old score even more.”

Wall nodded.

“Three… Two… One… Go!”

They started together but they didn’t stay that way for long. As Eric ran, as that sense of freedom rose, something else did too… His training.

He looked back. “Come on! You can do better than that! Dig into those memories!”

“What?”

“Every pain, every time you were hurt, humiliated, every fear, dig into that anger, let a bit build up again and use it! Push yourself and let it out, man!”

There was a growl behind him. He glanced back to see Wall gaining. He increased his pace.

“That’s better, now, don’t just try to keep up with me. Beat me. Push yourself!”

This continued for the full distance and by the end, they were neck and neck and crossed the finish line together.

They slowed to a stop. Wall put his hands on his knees and gasped for breath. “I… I’ve never…” He looked up at his screen and gasped. “Fourteen minutes and ten seconds? Fourteen-Ten?”

“Stand up. Straight. Straight back, square shoulders. Now! Never allow yourself to bend over after exercise. Terrible for the posture and even worse for your recovery time.”

“What? Why?”

“You need to breath. Deep breaths, in and out. Bend over like that and you’re closing your airways.” Eric nodded when Wall did as he said. “Time for my next challenger.”

Eric moved through the rest of the exercises with the same attitude. Not only did he beat them, he pushed each of them to within an inch of their endurance. The exercises without a challenger, he completed in half the time he had during his evaluation. There’d been a lot of testing during that.

Finally, he came to a halt, finishing everything and stood by the door. He grinned as the instructor jogged over.

“What did I just witness? I’ve never…”

“We agreed to a challenge, sir. They picked who’s best at each of the exercises. I knew they wouldn’t stand a chance but I’ve been trained to be…” he looked around, lowered his voice and leaned in close, “I’m a physical training instructor, sir… An army PTI.” he sighed. “And with my luck, I won’t get out of here in time to take the next level course I’m booked on. We’re trained to push the soldiers, to be the best, the fittest they can be. Suppose some of it just came out today.”

“Army? Who? What nation has a secret army? This is serious.”

Eric sighed. “Britain. But not this one. Speak to Conrad or the governor, sir. I’m not happy talking about it with that lot near. And it’s not a secret army. My home’s fully open about it. I’m a lance-corporal, a PTI and a medic, sir.”

“This is insane! You’re”

“Not deluded, sir. Move closer to the door sir, shield me from their view…”

“What’s this about, Unknown?”

“Please, just…” Eric ushered him closer.

When the instructor did as he was bid, Eric lowered his voice to barely a whisper. “I’m not from this world, sir.” He placed his hand between them. “Look at my hand.”

The moment it vanished, the instructor stared at Eric in terror.

Eric rolled his eyes. “Just… Speak to the governor before you leave tonight, sir. Yes, I have a weird talent. I gave this world antibiotics a few years ago and returned to add to that knowledge. Instead, I got totally… parbroked…. by the police and sentenced to life imprisonment wearing black just because, as I wasn’t from this world, I had no identity here. So, they forced one on me, knocked me out and fitted me up. The governor and doctor know everything. I’m here to help, sir. If helping in the prison includes pushing them to be better, so be it.”

“I’ve never seen… Shit, Unknown. The way you handled them today, I’m almost inclined to believe you.” He grinned. “You’ll be after my job, next, won’t you?”

“Wouldn’t be a done thing for a prisoner to take over, sir. You need authority. The ability to punish if they don’t put the effort in. I can do that to other soldiers, sir, just as you can do it to the prisoners, but… As a prisoner myself, I’ve got nothing but persuasion and force of personality on my side, sir.” He grinned. “If I do get out and find myself permanently stranded in this world, though… I wouldn’t say no to this job, or other subjects I’m qualified to instruct in.”

He nodded and waved his hand over the panel. “Unlock and open. I suppose you’d better get back to your cell. Get a shower. Then you know where to go.”

“Err… Sir?”

“Flute?”

“But… That’s not until tomorrow, sir…”

He shook his head. “You have two gym sessions, you have two lessons.”

“Really? The cell never mentioned that!”

“Oh, it will. I imagine the moment you’re out of the shower it’ll be the next instruction you receive. Make sure you’re early for him this time.”

Eric grinned. “Thank you, sir. This is better than I imagined. I’ll see you after wakeup.”
* * *
Another shower, another period stretched taut and helpless as the water hit him like a torrent. He’d only been in the cell… Well… Not that long and he was already getting used to the thing.

The moment the restraints snapped open and the cubicle door followed, the cell did exactly as the instructor had predicted.

“Prisoner 50095223, report to corridor A, room 9.”

“Yes, sir!” Eric sighed as he dressed. “The doctor’s right. I’m likely to miss them. Both of them. Just put the whole idea of ever getting away from here out of my mind and love it. Make the most of the experience while it lasts. Not like I have any choice in the matter.”

Down to the classroom, he waved his hand over the lock and again, “This classroom is locked,” issued from the panel. He listened at the door again but this time there didn’t appear to be any activity within.

He knocked, but when there was no answer, he stood to attention by the door and waited.

“Early this time, I see.”

Eric didn’t look towards the voice, he remained at attention, staring forward, but he recognised it.

“Yes, sir. I didn’t even know we had a second session, sir. The PTI told me, sir. He let me out as soon as I was finished.”

“Tell him he only needs to do that for the first session and only then because he’s often late. If he begins on time, you can end with the rest of them.”

“I will, sir. Thank you, sir.”

The teacher reached him and swiped the door. “Unlock and open. You might as well make yourself comfortable. They won’t arrive for a few more…” He rolled his eyes. “For a while yet.”

“Yes, sir.”

Eric entered and sat at the same desk he had last time.

“Did you do as I suggested?”

“Research, sir? Yes, sir. It’ll take a lot of reading before I’m ready to begin, though. I could knock up a wardrobe or chest of drawers in a couple of days, sir. A good one too but a musical instrument’s a piece of precision craftsmanship. Has to be to keep in tune, sir. I also downloaded books on musical notation, playing the flute and a few more from the archive on the general teaching of the craft, sir.”

“Did you delve any more deeply into the subjects than just begin the search and selection?”

“On notation, yes, sir. I knew it’d be useful for this, sir.”

“What did you read?”

“Time signatures, sir. And tying notes together with a bar. I’d need to hear something to fully understand what it means though. Books can only go so far, sir. Also, sharps and flats, sir.”

“Don’t worry, this lesson will include a few audio cues. You’re right, they are needed. Explaining that Beethoven’s fourth is in two four time and listening to it and pointing out the beats are two completely different things. You need both.”

“I… I don’t know which one his fourth is, sir.”

“Good grief… But it’s his most famous work, even more than his ode to joy, his eighth!”

“How does it go, sir?”

“Oh come now, du-du-du-duuum. Du-du-du-duuuuuuum.”

“God… I’d never even considered the changes could extend to music so old… It was his fifth from where I’m from, sir. I suppose he must’ve just written one more, or one less, here. I wonder if it sounds different too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sorry, sir. It’s… complicated. Very complicated. I should’ve just kept my trap shut, so I didn’t have to explain it again. Have you heard anything of the work they’re conducting in quantum physics?”

“The reality barrier? They’ve managed to break it? See some… very different worlds?”

“That’s something, at least. They’re not just worlds, they’re branches in history, sir. My world and yours branched well over two hundred years ago, sir. Something happened here that didn’t happen in mine. A famine.”

“Oh, you poor man! What are you doing in prison? You should be receiving treatment!”

Eric sighed. “I’m not deluded, sir. It has to be kept from the other prisoners, obviously, but, yes. I come from a very distant timeline. While you, after the initial troubles with the famine, pooled your resources and didn’t have any major conflicts, no wars for centuries and all that time improving your sciences, building your technologies to what they are today, mine… Well… Didn’t, sir. We had numerous wars including a couple of big ones. World wars. Do you have a communication bracelet, sir?”

“Of course.”

“While we’re waiting for the rest, contact doctor Conrad, sir. Ask him to ask his computer to play Beethoven’s first five symphonies. You may very well hear one you haven’t before, sir.”

“A lost…” his eyes widened. “A lost work by the great master?”

“If your Beethoven’s fourth is our fifth, sir, there has to be, doesn’t there? That’ll be proof I’m telling the truth. He downloaded everything I had on my computer before I moved into my cell, sir. If you think about it, even the ones that seem to match, like your fourth and our fifth might have significant differences. If he never got to write one of the earlier ones for some reason those ideas might’ve influenced the others.”

The teacher almost leapt at his wristband. “Bannon Conrad.”

“Yes?”

“Bannon, I’ve got Unknown here and he’s… well…”

“Ah, he’s told you, has he? What brought that up?”

“Told me… what exactly?”

“That he came here to deliver more medical information concerning antibiotics among other things? That, due to a few… indiscretions the last couple of times he visited this world, he… shall we say, got thoroughly parbroked by the police?”

“He mentioned other worlds. I thought he was several peas short of a pod! He mentioned a piece of music, Bannon… He said his Beethoven’s fifth… It’s our fourth. Please, play the first five now. He said you should have them on your computer. I… I have to hear it.”

“An unwritten Beethoven?!”

“Just… Skip forward to the next if it’s one I’ve heard.”

“Of course, Symphonies last a long time don’t they?”

“The first movement will do, even less for the ones I know, but once we’ve identified the unwritten one, everything after that might be different too. I’d like you to transfer the full pieces along with any musical scores for them when we identify it.”

“Computer, selecting from the world of Unknown’s origin, play the first five of Beethoven’s symphonies.”

As the first began to play, the teacher listened and nodded. “Skip that one.”

“Are you sure? It doesn’t sound familiar.”

Eric shook his head. “I’ve not heard it either.”

The teacher shrugged. “It’s not one of his popular pieces. You’ve not studied the classics?”

“Music was always just something that played in the background for me, sir. One of the reasons I took the course. Something new, sir.”

The next began to play and Eric shrugged. “Not heard that one either.”

When the third began to play, Eric nodded with a grin. “Now this one, I’ve heard. Quite famous.”

He glanced at the teacher, who stood transfixed. Tears began to well as he continued to listen.

“Sir? Are you alright?”

“It’s beautiful! How can this be?”

“I can only assume something happened to him, sir. At the time he wrote it in ours, maybe he was… I don’t know, ill, maybe? In trouble in some other way?”

“The years of famine and their aftermath were rather chaotic, to say the least. That must be it.”

The music continued and the teacher’s expression… Pure joy was the only description Eric could come up with.

Finally, it came to an end.

“Doctor…”

“I’ve never heard anything like it. I agree, it was beautiful… Consider it done, Andrew. Consider it done. Computer, copy all of Beethoven’s works using the previous specifications after the second symphony to Andrew Ditton’s computer. Include all musical arrangements and scores.”

“Transfer wTransfer complete.”

“Thank you, Unknown. I had no idea… And you’re here as a black? For life? What were these indiscretions?”

“Just theft and not kidnapping someone. He came willingly. According to the doc, my actions did result in a small injury, so add actual bodily harm. I’m counting on a retrial, so, not life but I’m here until that gets underway. Maybe longer. Depends how much I get sentenced to for the actual crimes. At least the other prisoners know about that much. They’ve seen the so-called interrogation where I was unconscious throughout, thus allowing them to pin anything they wanted on me by claiming a refusal to answer..”

“And that’s assuming the evidence they have against you…”

Eric nodded. “If I’m here for life, I might as well enjoy it, sir. That’s why I booked myself on this course and volunteered to teach. Keep myself busy and the time will fly by. I won’t care in a few years if I’m in that long. Especially as I won’t know it’s been a few years by then.”

“Why can’t they all have that attitude?”

“I suppose growing up with technology that does every single thing for you might be the answer to that one, sir. I didn’t. In fact, by the time I was fifteen I moved away from a world with technology to one with hardly any. My original world was nothing compared to this, but we still had computers, an internet and television… Before you say anything, that’s what we call telop, sir.”

“Barely any?”

“No computers, apart from the ones I stole from this world, sir. We had radio but that was it.”

“So, you… Even had to do your accounting by hand?”

“We did have a few smartphones from my original world, sir. Useless for their main purpose of making phone calls because there wasn’t any infrastructure but they had calculator apps. Apart from those though, sir, and a few mechanical calculators made in that world, nothing. Certainly no robots. A few pumps to keep the mines clear of water, a few conveyor belts and those calculators… That’s as far as our machinery goes. We even use horses to pull the ploughs.”

“That sounds like hell, to me!”

Eric shook his head. “You gain a lot of satisfaction from putting your back into some work. Very good way to keep yourself fit and you accomplish something with the effort. The gym here’s only purpose is for fitness, there’s no end result but that. There is when you’re down a mine or ploughing a field, sir. Fitness is a side effect rather than the sole purpose. We actually produce things at the same time, sir.”

“That does sound more efficient, in a way.”

“Does everyone go to the gym in this world, sir? Or is obesity a problem? It was in my original world, sir.”

“Blood and shit, Unknown? You’re actually claiming that… That we… That you…” He sighed. “I suppose you’re right in a way. Living in the lap of luxury… We do take far too much for granted. I grew up in a time before the computers were advanced enough to do half the things they can now and I look at the children today and despair. That’s why I teach as I do.”

Eric nodded. “I think that’s one of the reasons the man I,” he made air quotes, “kidnapped, decided to make our world his home, sir. The offer was always on the table that I could take him home but, he doesn’t want to, now. Our village is his home. He’s seen how happy everyone is. How open and friendly. Hardship ties people together. They’ll always work together to make better lives for themselves if the alternative's a harder life, possibly even going hungry.”

He nodded, smiled, then the smile vanished. “We’ve been talking for some… Now it’s… Just a moment.” He moved to the door, swiped his hand and poked his head out. “What the shit are you doing out there? Loitering? I’ll have a privilege from each of you for being late if you do this again! Get in here!”

“But, sir! The door was closed!”

“You know how to swipe a bloody panel! If it was locked, it would’ve told you! In! Take your seats!”

As the class filed in, Eric caught the eye of the woman who’d said she liked a challenge. “You might as well sit next to me.”

“What? Why?”

“Seems we’re the only two taking this class seriously, so why not?”

“But…”

“I don’t bite, y’know. You heard what I said last time. Black doesn’t mean a monster. You’re probably guilty of worse crimes than I am.”

“I don’t want any funny business.”

Eric chuckled. “You seriously think I’d risk that? Here? That grey three earlier thought five years in one was bad enough but one for life and get a shock every time I got hard? No thanks! Friendship’s as far as anyone here can go and that’s fine by me. Besides, I already have someone. I’m engaged to be married. I’d never cheat on her.”

Her eyes widened and she sat beside him with a grin. “Cerol.”

“Eric, nice to meet you. Just out of curiosity, what level of grey are you? You’re darker than that three.”

She sighed. “Five. And I know what you mean about that… thing. Even without the shocks. I’d be denied the right to have kids and I bet keeping yourself clean in one’s a nightmare.”

The moment everyone was seated, the teacher began.

“From now on, you get to the door, you swipe. You do not linger, loiter, queue up outside and waste precious lesson time. Also, from this lesson onwards, you will be assigned homework. I expect it to be completed by the next lesson and if you fail to provide it, you will be punished! Is that understood?”

Eric and Cerol said “Yes, sir.” with enthusiasm. The rest groaned their responses.

“Good… Now, I’m not going to go over what a semiquaver or a crotchet are again. I expect you to remember such things. Now, we’re moving onto rests, time signatures and bars. Time signatures also have the name meter. They’re used to denote how many notes to a bar.”